


The Circle

by Deannie



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1996-11-04
Updated: 1996-11-04
Packaged: 2018-01-02 00:00:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deannie/pseuds/Deannie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short scene from "The Field Where I Died."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Circle

"Dana, if, um..." Mulder trailed off, embrassed by the use of his partner's first name, embarassed by the words he wanted to say. "Early on in the four years we've been working together, an event occurred that suggested, or someone told you that we'd been friends together... always..." He looked into her eyes, waiting for a sign of understanding. "Wouldn't it have changed some of the ways we looked at one another?"

Her eyes softened, and Mulder had a sudden, disconcerting feeling that he'd seen that look before... On a battlefield in Tennessee...

"Even if I knew for certain," she said quietly. "I wouldn't change a day."

He knew it. He knew that it was the truth. Even if she didn't believe it, Scully had chosen to be here for him, chosen, as she had in other lifetimes, to be his protector, his advisor... his dearest friend.

She broke their eye contact, heading quietly for the door, before turning back, a wry grin on her face. "Well," she said, restrained laughter in her voice. "Maybe that flukeman thing. I could have lived without that just fine."

As she walked out, he had to smile. He didn't want to, didn't think he had it in him, but he had to... She didn't want to believe--she was _afraid_ to believe. If you were supposed to learn something from every lifetime, then maybe Scully's task was to learn to believe.

And his, he thought sadly, his gaze straying back to the photos before him, was to learn to be alone...

No, not alone. Scully was here... She'd always been there. Somehow, he supposed he'd always known it. That first day, when she'd walked into his office, questioning everything he did, arguing with everything he said... Somehow, he'd known there was a connection.

Not physical--though she was truly beautiful--not sexual... Something deeper. Something that told him that, no matter why she'd been sent, she was there to help him... A sergeant on the line, keeping him focused on the battle ahead...

Once more, he rubbed at his face, trying to keep the tears at bay. But it was so hard! Seeing... Melissa... knowing, somehow, that she was the one. The one he'd never found, the one he'd never even really thought was there...

He'd always believed in past lives and reincarnation as a sort of pleasant concept--a way to explain that connection that people felt, for no reason, for people they had barely met. But now he _knew._ He knew it was the truth, knew he had known her before, would know her _always..._

And he knew that, in this life, he wouldn't be with her. He would have to learn to live with the knowledge that she would wait for him... through years, through decades, through eternity...

But for now, his best friend at his side, he'd have to go on... alone.  


* * *

_The End_


End file.
